How far in one day?

[SkipdiverJohn]

I was having a conversation with an old boy I'm friendly with, and the conversation somehow got on to the younger generation being lazy and unwilling to go anywhere under their own power. Out of the blue, he casually mentions that around 1954 him and a mate, then still both teenagers, rode SS Fixed bikes on a day trip totalling.....216 miles. 108 miles each way, a bit over 6 hours for the outbound trip and 8 hours to get back. I put the A and B points in a route planner and it came back as 106 miles e/w, so I'm inclined to believe it isn't BS. When I asked him what he was riding he equally casually says a lightweight racing frame with 52/13 - as it was the biggest gearing he could find!. Even today with bikes having 20 or more ratios to choose from, I reckon even the most dedicated riders would baulk at doing that distance in a single day, let alone on a SS bike with a gearing of over 100 inches! He did say though the following day his thighs had swollen and he had trouble getting his trousers on when he got up so he ended up going to the doctor's.

 

[Maenchi]

Not sure what bikes they were riding, but in the early 1930s when an auntie and uncle of mine would have been in their 20s they said the used to ride from Sheffield, where they lived............ to Scarborough .......................and back........on the same day !!!! which is about 180miles................I was very impressed by this, the story was told to me when I said i'd cycled to Scarborough myself, just getting there........... in one day from Sheffield was enough for me !!! and I was in my early 20s also................

 

[Slick]

I met a cracking old boy a couple of years ago when our riding. We got chatting about all sorts of things and he told me how he wanted to test a hand built bike him and his father had just completed and he ended up in campbeltown from Drumchapel I think it was. Around 145 miles each way, but not on the same day.

 

[screenman]

Knocking the young again, my young son has done many iron mans, they had not been invented back in 1954. My father and father in law were both not very active men who did very little except moan.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I tend to do a couple of 230 mile rides every year. I’ve done them on everything from my old Btwin Riverside Hybrid, to a Brompton. There are issues with doing those kinds of distances in one go, but if you do them with someone else / a group, it’s less mentally trying. The physical aspects are still going to be there, the mechanical aspects are also a consideration, and actually getting time to do them, is an issue. But it’s certainly not that unusual to find people cycling a ride of that distance / duration. It’s a bit more unusual to do it every day, for a year or more though.

 

[Sharky]

It's amazing how amazed non cyclists are when you tell them how far you rode at the weekend, or on your commute into work, but even as an experienced young cyclist, I was amazed by the exploits of the late Roy Cromack when he broke the 24hr time trial record (507 miles).

 

[derrick]

I do the odd 200 mile ride. We have one planned for the 12 of May. It will be my other halfs first 200. So far her biggest is 140. She is now 56. Am pretty sure she will cope. First one i did, was actually 214. garmin battery died before the ride finished.
https://www.strava.com/activities/301362611

 

[winjim]

If on the one hand you've got

the younger generation being lazy and unwilling to go anywhere under their own power

and on the other there's

the following day his thighs had swollen and he had trouble getting his trousers on when he got up so he ended up going to the doctor's.

then it's just possible your argument lacks a certain nuance.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I will be riding just over 200 miles this Saturday. Riding this kind of distance in one go is no big deal if you ride long distances regularly. Trying to do it at higher speeds is hard. As long as you have your bike setup for comfort, have worked out what food and drink works for you, and keep your pacing comfortable; then almost snyone can do it. If regular audaxers, average age 50 or so, can di it; then I am sure younger riders won't find it an issue.

 

[smutchin]

If regular audaxers, average age 50 or so, can di it; then I am sure younger riders won't find it an issue.

Being capable of doing it is one thing, but while I know plenty of audaxers who ride fixed for preference, they're pretty much all 'veterans'. Kids these days just don't seem so interested in doing long rides on fixed. I don't know if that's due to laziness or other factors though.

I only discovered the joy of fixed-gear road riding in my late 30s. I do the odd audax on fixed but prefer much more reasonable gearing, around 67 inches - doing a long ride on a 100-inch-plus gear is insane. (I'm contemplating using the fixed gear bike for the West Highland 1000 at the end of May but not sure it's a good idea - will probably end up going with gears. I'm pretty sure there will be other riders on that event on fixed though.)

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You over estimate how hard fixed is. Like anything it just takes a while to get used to and then you are away. It is not necessarily harder, just different.

 

[derrick]

You over estimate how hard fixed is. Like anything it just takes a while to get used to and then you are away. It is not necessarily harder, just different.

It's really hard if you are geared wrong, i always used a fixie for commuting, it was geared for a flat route, every now and then i used it for club rides, the hills really hurt.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It's really hard if you are geared wrong, i always used a fixie for commuting, it was geared for a flat route, every now and then i used it for club rides, the hills really hurt.

Well gear inch choices are always a topic for discussion amongst those of us who ride fixed. Do enough long rides and hills and you get a feel for what works for you. Generally geared riders go backwards when you start going up, then overtake on downhills as you spin like a dervish.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I'm surprised to hear that people are currently doing these distances on one day, even on bikes with multi gears, but to ride SS or Fixed seems bordering on insanity - as no route of 100+ miles each way is not going to have some hills on it!.
What I'm amazed at it the case of the journey I described was the average speed. Based on the approx journey times I was told, it meant they averaged about 16.5 mph for the outward leg and 13.5 mph on the return.
Now, over 60 years ago there would have been less road traffic, and they were on very light, built-up amateur type racing bikes with drop bars, but even so that is a very high average speed to sustain over such a long distance. There would have been no fancy energy gels to consume on the fly then, so I'd imagine there must have been at least a couple of brief stops en-route to gulp down some water and devour a Kendal Mint Cake bar or two, which would have made the average speed even harder to attain. The use of minimalist SS bikes I'm told was partly down to the fact derailleur bikes were still uncommon back in the early 50's, and partly because a SS was both lighter in weight and cheaper to build than a multi-gear as the bulk of the money went into getting the best frames possible - I'm assuming they would have been 531 butted, and not easily affordable to a couple of teenagers on the weekly wages they got from British Rail.
I do think there's a generational thing though, because back then, most working class people did not own a car so riding a bike several miles to work, doing a day's hard physical labour whilst at work, then riding home was considered perfectly normal - so the required level of effort needed to cycle a very long distance may not have been considered particularly extreme. People generally weren't fat in those days and regular cyclists working in physical occupations were probably vastly fitter physically than all but the most dedicated athletes are nowadays.

 

[Ian H]

I have campaigns on fixed every so often. Last time was 2015 when I qualified for and rode Paris-Brest-Paris. It was the 2nd time I'd ridden it on fixed, and much faster than the first. There were several others riding likewise.
And in case you think I'm some super-athlete, I'm about to start drawing my pension.